If you wanted a Prosecco for Valentine’s Day then this one certainly looks the part. The label features a heart, the name is Heart. Quite why they didn’t make the label heart shaped I don’t know. I’m pretty certain that if pink Prosecco was a real thing then they’d have made it pink, but it’s not, Prosecco is white, so they’d have had to call it something other that Prosecco and right now no-one wants to do that because people order Prosecco all the time and it’s a safe choice.
As a wine it’s OK, it’s not great, but then I’m not a huge sparkling wine fan and Prosecco is fairly low down my list of preferred bubbles – Kudos to Sekt, hanging on to last place, just below putting a wine I don’t much like through a Soda Stream to see if it perks it up a little, which works surprisingly well, perhaps because it’s the sort of idea people have after having more wine than is entirely wise in the first place. I had an uncle who made his own wine for decades, and his Soda Stream rose was an under rated treat.
I wouldn’t choose to drink this wine on it’s own, but it’s perfect as a base for Prosecco cocktails. At Christmas I usually end up with assorted bottles of Champagne, Cava, Cremant and Prosecco and I tend to put the Prosecco away for easy summer cocktail drinking.
Topping up a glass with Chambord is perfect, it gives it a wonderful neon pink colour, whilst adding a raspberry sweetness that lifts it from flabby apples to something rather elegant.
The French liqueur St Germain is just heavenly in Champagne, and a thousand tiny angels dancing on your tongue drunk on its own ice cold, but it’s rather nice in Prosecco too. The elderflower flavour just screams springtime and goes well with the bubbles.
Add a drop Brandy to warm it up, or a shot of vodka if you just want to get drunk, you can call that an Absolutely Fabulous cocktail if you want, although that should be Bollinger Champagne and Stolichnaya vodka for a BolliStolli. Try in with gin for a French Italian 75.
For a more relaxed and pleasant drinking experience try 2/3 Prosecco with 1/3 juice to reduce total alcohol. Orange juice for a Bucks Fizz/Mimosa, peach nectar for a Bellini, or one that I think works better with Prosecco than champagne, use grapefruit juice, it doesn’t really have a name that I know of, but that does seem to bring the best out in an otherwise ordinary sparkle.
Pick up I Heart Prosecco at Sainsbury’s, Spar, or Bargain Booze! It’s usually on offer so great to try out new cocktails with little risk.